Installing Indoor Cat Tree

[The Dogmother]

Help, my garden is plagued with slugs, I was hoping that the chooks would help by eating them all, but they don't show any interest at all!

 

When I feed them in the morning, the peanut is covered in slugs and slime , where they are eating the pellets - yuk yuk yuk. I have to scrub it all thoroughly before the chooks will touch it.

 

They all come out overnight when it is damp, and a quick run down the garden after dark is like doing an obstacle course.

 

Help me conquer the slime!

[Popcorn]

There are a few humane ways of getting rid of slugs Clare:

 

Here's some,

 

Plant a selection of mint, chives, garlic, geraniums, foxgloves and fennel around your other plants - slugs hate them and will steer clear.

 

Eggshells prove to be very difficult to the slugs to move over, so crush them up and spirnkle them around your plants. Works with sand and grit too. Sawdust is another goody.

 

Hair - they hate human hair. You could visit your local hairdresser and ask for a bag

 

Smooth some Vaseline around the tops of your pots, slugs with ski all the way back down!

 

If you have a water sprayer fill it with vinegar and water and give your plants a quick squirt.

 

They hate copper. Buy some copper wire from your DIY shop and wrap it around your plant pots or buy strips to lay across the soil. It gives off a small electric shock and will send the slugs next door!

 

You couild get them drunk with a beer trap.

 

Fill a jar with beer and bury it in the soil with the top of the jar just poking out. Slugs love the taste of stale beer (bitter works best) and they will drown. You can add them to your compost bin for extra tasty compost.

 

Same as above, but with cola or coffee.

 

Eat a grapefruit and put the empty half upsdie dowm in the garden. the slugs love it. It you don't want to kill them when you collect them, chuck them in the compost bin.

 

More?!

[Guest]

If you cut a slug in half with a trowel and dangle its guts in front of the girls they will go nuts and eat him - thereafter they have the taste and once detected a slug won't last 5 seconds in the garden!!!

 

I'm not sure it is necessary to cut them in half first! My girlies fight over slugs all the time, it's really quite amusing! We used to have serious slug problems but now the girlies spend most of the day in the garden, they soon root them out!

[Alison M]

Our chooks go mad for slugs. Early evening I collect them in a small container (with a lid) and feed them to the girls in the morning.

[clarea1]

Gina - I'm very impressed with your anti - slug knowledge! I would presume from that post that you have met one or two in your garden at some stage!!

 

I can vouch for the beer traps - they are really effective and beer is great for the composter.

[Guest]

I can vouch for the beer traps - they are really effective and beer is great for the composter.

 

Really? So you can just empty the whole thing into the composter, then refill?

[The Dogmother]

WOW Thanks for all those great suggestions. I must admit that I am more or less resigned to them in the garedn in general and eating my plants, but I object to clearing them and their slimy trails off the peanut every morning, then having to use industrial strength cleaner just to get the slime off.

 

I will try geraniums and copper wire round the Eglu run to try to keep them off that way. I will also have a go at chopping one in half to get the girls to eat them - so far they haven't touched one, and it would be the best deterrent short of a flame thrower!

 

Will keep you posted

[Popcorn]

Shona, you can put live slugs in the compost bin too, if you have paper or cardboard in there they will help to mulch it all down and they'll be so happy they'll leave your plants alone.

 

I guess you'd have to be careful when you use the compost though so as you don't put the little blighters back into the soil with your plants!

 

Good luck with the treatment Clare!

[Guest]

Shona, you can put live slugs in the compost bin too,

 

What an idea! I could feed them to the tiger worms in my wormery!!!

 

 

 

*Note to self: MUST STOP READING THE FORUM WHILE EATING LUNCH*

[Popcorn]

As long as you aren't eating lunch and feeding slugs to the tiger worms at the same time....could end in tears

[The Dogmother]

Well, I might have put an end to this topic - The Boy came up with the most sensible answer (which unfortunately didn't involve butchering slugs ) - He said 'your chickens don't need their food overnight do they? So why not bring the peanut in overnight to stop it getting full of slugs?' I didn't know whether to hug him for coming up with a solution, or to have the grumps because I didn't come up with it first, and it was down to a smelly boy to think of it!

 

Been out all day at company golf do (yawn), so got back after 8.30pm, ex was babysitting and chooks in bed, so rushed down the garden and brought the peanut in before the slugs got out.

 

Hey presto no slimy peanut!

[Anna 1]

We don't seem to have any slugs or snail anymore. The girls weren't keen when they first arrived, but the MOTH got in the habit of going out and finding little teeny slugs and snails and offering them to the girls on the end of a trowel. They haven't looked back! They graduated onto big snails about two months ago, so between them and the lovely frog who lives under the shed we have a slug/smail free garden. I have intact hostas!

[Cate in NZ]

Oooh, I wish I could persuade mine to do that. I've given up on my original trio, they prefer worms and sweetcorn, turn their beaks up at slugs. Maybe I could train the (orangeeglu) babies, dig out some fresh little baby slugs, and dangle them temptingly. Might give the hand feeding a miss for that one though

[Cinnamon]

On reading this thread yesterday, I went onto the garden on a slug-hunt.

I found 3 HUGE ones right away ,the horrid grey ones with the orange belly, & the hens went MAD for them!

Jenny had one in her beak,her head held high, & the others were fluttering up to try & grab it.

A bit gruesome, but very entertaining

 

Anyhow - thanks for the tip.

I have the kids on a slug hunt right now

[Amythefoxslayer!]

Yuck! I feel guilty if I accidently step on a snail, I couldn't kill one on purpose! Anyway if you give chickens too many slugs they'll get diarrhea Then again I also keep pet snail so maybe that's why I feel so guilty!

[Mel (& Paul)]

Its funny. I dont like slugs, but wouldnt kill them (if the chooks are free ranging then they are fair game ) but I like snails - although they are no more than slugs with homes on thie backs! Mind you, I am rather partial to escargot

[Happymama]

There are a few humane ways of getting rid of slugs Clare:

 

Here's some,

 

Plant a selection of mint, chives, garlic, geraniums, foxgloves and fennel around your other plants - slugs hate them and will steer clear.

 

 

Unfortunately, our hens eat all these plants. And hostas.

[Guest]

My mother actually feeds her slugs She leaves out cucumber, bread, courgettes etc. They happily gorge themselves on their food and leave everything else alone.

I have tried it with considerable success myself by putting a courgette between their 'home' and my flowers. Not sure what it does for the slug population though!

A couple of years hubby and I counted over 100 slugs on our small lawn I used slug pellets then and the population has been much, much smaller since.

Now we have chickens, I am assuming slug pellets would be dangerous (they kill cats). I don't think they've seen a slug yet though and I am NOT going to be chopping them up and serving them as a delicacy

[Popcorn]

My mother actually feeds her slugs

Well, it's one way of keeping them off your plants I guess

[chocchick]

Oh wow, I am so impressed with this thread, I think we will be trying some of the more natural slug remedies. They munched all our plants to pieces over the Summer.

You can't believe how happy we were when we found out that chickens ate slugs. However our girls seem v picky at the moment. They eat layers mash/small insects in the soil and grass. They won't eat raisins, porridge, sweetcorn, broccoli, they maybe had a small bit of pasta I'm not sure. We're trying to identify a treat they will eat, maybe try a slug and see if they go for it, although I'm not too happy handling slugs.

[Mrs Blue Sky]

I have hated slugs even more than before since I trod on one accidentally and it popped and its insides squirted up inside the leg of my jeans. And I don't think it's wrong to kill them either - I have been known to skewer some on a kebab stick and spear it into the ground so the birdies can have slug kebab. But more kindly, another thing they love is bran, and if you lay a flower pot or jam jar down on the ground (so rain or dew doesn't get in) and put some bran inside they come along and gobble it all up. Then the bran swells up inside them, they burst, and the birdies can come and get them - they're even more nourishing with all that bran in, along the lines of a stuffed date! Yum! Hope you've all had tea...

 

But, I did read that they regulate their population via slime (somehow) and that if you take away too many of them they will breed like mad to make up the numbers! And that when there is an optimum number in an area they breed more slowly so they all get enough to eat.

[Mel (& Paul)]

I had that kind of bad slug experience when we were first married. Our first flat was in a huge victorian house with beautiful high seasons which looked lovely in the autumn sun. Not so good with the cold weather as it had no heating and was very damp. One night, when getting up to answer the call of nature I managed to tread on a slug in the bathroom.

I like the idea of the bran - much better than those blue pellets - although I cant really pretend that our garden would look any better without slugs

[The Dogmother]

I have to say that I hate slugs with a vengeance and we are really badly afflicted with them here too, they decimate the garden. I shall certainly try the bran approach as is is organic and not harmful to the chooks, it also appeals to my ghoulish sense of humour to have them bursting their guts.

 

Has anyone else noticed that the absolutely love dried cat biscuits?

[Mrs Blue Sky]

You do need to keep refreshing the bran supply though - it gets damp quickly and then all the fun goes out of the game! And it is lovely to see them all stuffed up with the bran & DEAD!

[The Dogmother]

I will definitely give it a go in the spring BS. I was wondering whether mash would entice them as I always have to bring my peanuts in at night otherwise they are full of slimy slugs! They also seem attracted to dried cat biscuits